


apricity

by shishiswordsman



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Study, Crew as Family, Kinda?, M/M, Post-Wano Arc (One Piece), Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 16:46:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19834375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shishiswordsman/pseuds/shishiswordsman
Summary: “Trafalgar.”The galley lights are too bright when Law blinks his eyes open, squinting blearily at first the clock and then to his newest ally. It’s five am. He should be asleep, still. “This better be important,” he mutters, the gravel of his voice an inch away from murderous.Monet hesitates by the door frame before answering, her tone unreadable. “It’s Straw Hat. The bear told me to come get you.”





	apricity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [m_rosenkov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_rosenkov/gifts).



“Trafalgar.”

The galley lights are too bright when Law blinks his eyes open, squinting blearily at first the clock and then to his newest ally. It’s five am. He should be asleep, still.

“This better be important,” he mutters, the gravel of his voice an inch away from murderous.

Monet hesitates by the door frame before answering, her tone unreadable. “It’s Straw Hat. The bear told me to come get you.”

Law nods. He doesn’t know what to say to her, nor does he have the energy to figure it out — his body throbs with aches and pains as he follows her out to the narrow corridors of the Polar Tang. Kikoku digs into the dip behind his collar bone. It’s a comforting weight.

He’d found her purely on accident. When the prison of Udon had collapsed and the inmates were sprung free, Luffy leading the charge straight into the fray where Kaido lied in waiting, Law had snuck in. She’d been there, in one of the cells. Starved, chained up by her feet and her neck, bruised; but Law still recognised her. He’d stood at the doorway, sharp shadows casting his features into darkness, the bright sunlight coming from behind him. She’d recognised him, too.

_— ice, swirling around him, Monet’s sardonic laugh a grating and dry sound in his ears. Her eyes pierce through him with their feigned disinterest, the curiosity hidden beneath the façade like a shovel, forcing its way through layers of sand and snow. Punk Hazard feels so cold, and Law shivers, he’s alone —_

His first instinct had been to walk past her, to ignore the green of her feathers and the red in her eyes. This wasn’t what he came here to do, after all, and freeing her would destroy the frail balance Law’s crafted between all unknown and known variables of the plan. The plan to take down Kaido the Beast.

Even still, it’s not like he had meant to come to the prison, either. On a somewhat calculated whim, he’d split from the rest of their group and trekked there by himself. He’d meant to find information on their captured allies — _Luffy, he’d thought, sweat running down his temples in heavy drops, Luffy’s alone, and you left him to Kaido. The guilt is acidic, burns in his veins_ — or maybe something about SMILE and the horrors it has wrought on so many islanders on Wano. Bepo had laughed once, after Law had freed them from Hawkins’ skinny little hands, and the sound had stopped Law’s heart, frozen the blood in his veins. For a moment, he’d assumed…

A nervous chill runs up Law’s spine, raising the hair in the back of his neck. He shakes himself, hoping he’s discreet about it. Monet gives him a look from the corner of her eye; a curious knit in her brow, a gleam of something sharp in the tight set of her jaw. That look tells Law he hasn’t been as subtle as he’d hoped, so he pretends not to see it.

_— the war, the fight for the title of the strongest in the world. Bullets fly past Law’s head, and Monet flies above him, snow swirling around her, tempests doing her bidding. Law swings under a Calamity’s attack, but he’s not fast enough, doesn’t notice it when a sword digs down, at his head, and he’s dead now; he knows it. Until he doesn’t. A pillar of snow sweeps him off his feet, and it pushes into his collar and tickles at his ankles, but he’s alive. Monet doesn’t meet eyes with him, after, and Law’s too proud to thank her, his enemy —_

Monet’s wings are too wide for her to walk comfortably in the Polar Tang, so she keeps them bunched up close to her sides, as though her arms are crossed. She glances at Law in askance, and the corner of her mouth twitches.

“You’re not going to ask why I was told to get you?”

Law smirks. “If it has to do with Luffy-ya, then I assume he’s finally woken up.”

At Monet’s stiff nod, Law’s smirk turns into a pleased smile. He was right. Luffy’s awake. His stride turns longer, faster, a tugging in his chest pulling him toward the infirmary. Luffy’s been asleep for eight days, five of those spent unconscious.

Law’s been worried. The Straw Hats have been worried.

The infirmary door is made of metal, like most of the Polar Tang, and it’s cold against Law’s bare fingers as he pushes the door open. Luffy’s cot is the same as it was almost three years ago, but the man lying in has changed in many ways. The tired grin Luffy flashes Law the second he sees him is still the same.

“Torao!” the future king chirps, reaching out with one bandaged hand. The tugging in Law’s chest grows so powerful it threatens to yank his heart right out of his chest if he doesn’t move to Luffy fast enough.

He touches the side of Luffy’s face, brushing his fingers against his cheekbones, too pronounced after days of nothing but IV fluids. He’s been too tired to eat, until only a few hours ago.

Next, Luffy’s lips are chapped and dry against his, the kiss one of yearning, of days spent apart. Luffy kisses like a storm, even injured and worn out; Law’s lips hurt when he pulls away, but his heart soars, aches with belonging.

“You’re alive,” Law murmurs into Luffy’s ear, hand carding through the coarse strands of hair at the back of his boyfriend’s head. “We won.”

Luffy grins, his eyes clouded from all the medication. “Yeah we did! Is everyone else okay?”

Law nods, pressing one more kiss to Luffy’s forehead before pulling away. He checks his lover over methodically, soothed by the steady beep of the heart monitor, the healthy colour in Luffy’s skin. His wounds are beginning to heal, and seeing that sews shut Law’s own wounds better than any other remedy.

He loses himself in it, the reunion; too drawn in by the sound of Luffy’s pulse, the feeling of warm skin under his fingertips to notice anything else. Luffy babbles even when Law tells him not to _— I can’t take your blood pressure like this, dipshit! Shut up! —_ and it’s a wonderful distraction.

“Who’re you?” Luffy asks suddenly, still blinking sleep from his eyes. Law had thought she had left — he’d been so absorbed in Luffy, in relishing their incredible victory, that the world surrounding him had all but melted away.

Now, he follows Luffy’s line of sight to her — Monet, standing by the doorway, her back to them. The draw of her shoulders is tense, her posture ramrod straight. She looks like she’s stood there for a while now — Law’s not sure she ever left.

“I’ll go,” Monet says, but her eyes flicker to Luffy and Law’s joined hands dubiously, with some other emotion Law can’t name.

“No. Come here,” Luffy commands. When Monet doesn’t move from where she stands, he repeats himself, his tone more insistent this time. “Come here, Snow Lady.”

“Monet,” she corrects him, the word riding out on a tremoring exhale, but nonetheless she steps closer, takes Luffy’s hand in hers. Luffy pulls her closer until her thighs brush against the side of the cot, the grin stretching his lips weary but void of doubt.

“Snow Lady,” he says, the little shit. “We’ve met before, right?”

“Yes,” she admits. She doesn’t move away when Luffy’s hands card through her long, green feathers, the youngest making impressed noises as he marvels at the snowbird’s wings. Monet’s head tilts to the side, the movement so small it’s only barely noticeable. “On Punk Hazard,” she continues quietly. “I tried to kill you.”

Luffy snickers. “Oh, right! A lot of people try to kill me. Right, Torao?”

Law sighs, rubbing his temples in exasperation. “Right.”

“I saw you, when we were fighting,” Luffy continues, without preamble. He takes her hand in his again, and Law startles as the younger pirate’s other hand finds his own, squeezing a bit too tightly even through layers of gauze, the sharp edges of his bones digging into Law’s skin. “You saved Torao from one of the big guys. I know you’re a good person, deep down.”

“I’m not.” Monet takes her hand from Luffy’s, steps further away. “Don’t pretend like you know me. Don’t you know what I’ve done?”

“Bad things?” Luffy guesses, shrugging. “We’re pirates, though. That’s what we do. Hey, your wings are cool!”

Monet’s eyes narrow, a scowl flitting on her features for a mere second or two before she schools her expression into one of carefully culminated calm. She looks from Luffy to Law, evaluating the two captains with an icy concentration, and Law gets the sudden feeling he’s in the heart of a snowstorm.

After a moment of silence, during which Luffy has simply stared at her, waiting, Monet’s shoulders slump a little, her wings falling away from where they had shielded her body. “I should go,” she says, turning to leave.

“Stay,” Luffy orders, his voice soft, earnest as only he can. He’s not talking about Monet giving him and Law some privacy, and they all know it; it’s written plainly on the serious look on Luffy’s face. The moon, calling home the tide, and Monet never has to leave again. “You can join my crew, if you want! You’ll be my —”

“Or mine. My crew.”

Law’s surprised to hear the words, only barely above a breath, and even more surprised to be the one saying them. He doesn’t know why he wants this, but it feels right.

In a twisted way, they’re united by a time when they both considered Doflamingo family. Law, three years of his life, a part of the Donquixote family. Monet, for the better part of hers; a tool in the Joker’s disposal, a soldier but never a someone.

She could be a someone, now, Law realises — a member of the Hearts. Law doesn’t know if she’ll stay, and he doesn’t know if she should. She’s a danger; an enemy.

Then again, so was Luffy, once.

They’re connected, first by the Joker and then by the laboratory on Punk Hazard, and something in Law doesn’t want to let that go. It’s not romantic — the seas only know he’s got his hands full with Luffy as it is — but more like a camaraderie of sorts; the shadows in her eyes greet the ones in his.

Perhaps, in another world, they could have been friends.

(Perhaps, they still can.)

“You have no reason to trust me,” Monet says eventually, her voice thick even as her face shows no hint of sentiment.

Luffy’s grin is wide and weary and honest, and he pulls her closer again, the beckoning of a king. “She didn’t say no, Torao!”

Law finds himself smiling back, Luffy’s snickers finally breaking the tension in the dark infirmary. When he glances at Monet, she’s smiling, too.

And so, she stays.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this fic for my friend, may! she's also a wonderful writer, so if you haven't already please [go check out her works!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_rosenkov/works)
> 
> i really struggled with writing monet, because she is a villain and i really like that, but i feel like she could also be more human. and, law's not exactly a boy scout either, so i'm sure he wouldn't lose any sleep over monet's morality (or lack thereof). i really hope you enjoy this, may! you're the best, and i love you a lot <3
> 
> [tumblr](http://shishiswordsman.tumblr.com/) || [twitter](https://twitter.com/shishiswordsman)


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